Plataea (479 BC) - The battle where Western civilization hung in the balance:

Plataea (479 BC) - The battle where Western civilization hung in the balance:

The Battle of Plataea was fought between the united city-states of ancient Greece and the mighty Persian Empire, and while it was the most important battle of the Greco-Persian Wars, it is not nearly as well-known as three other battles. Thermopylae was a Greek defeat, and Marathon and Salamis, although Greek victories, were only temporary setbacks for Persia, which returned to the fight each time. Plataea, however, was decisive and effectively ended the Persian invasion. If the Greeks had lost this battle and become merely one more province of the Persian Empire, the cultural flourishing of Greece in the 5th century BC might not have taken place. This victory ensured the continued independence of the Greek city-states - permitting an astonishingly rich period of art, science, and philosophy to begin which would lay the foundations for Western civilization.

So much was on the line and so stacked the odds seemed against the allied Greeks.

. . .

On the one side of the battle was mighty Persia, a culturally sophisticated, ethnically diverse, and economically prosperous empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to the borders of modern lndia. Pitted against this colossus were the Greek city-states, a group of small, separate political entities on the mainland of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea that shared a common language and culture. The largest was Athens, known for its boldness and creativity, which had begun to experiment with forms of democracy. Next was Sparta, inward-looking, suspicious, and possessed of a small but terrifyingly efficient and fanatical army. These two spent most of their time engaged in fierce squabbles with each other.

. . .

During the 6th century BC, a military innovation occurred in Greece: the hoplite revolution. This introduced a style of fighting in which heavily armed and armored foot soldiers fought in an organized formation, carrying a heavy, circular, concave shield three feet in diameter and shaped so the hoplites could nestle their shoulders and torsos within the curve. The other standard piece of equipment was a long stabbing spear equipped with a bronze spearhead and a smaller bronze butt-spike that could function both as an alternate spear point if the main one broke off and for downward thrusts.

The hoplite was a formidable opponent, protected from the front from head to toe in solid armor. Yet the weight of his shield and armor made him cumbersome, and he was vulnerable to attack from the sides and behind. The solution to this vulnerability was the phalanx: long rows, several men deep, with their shields close to one another or at times even overlapping. Fighting as a phalanx, each man in essence protected his neighbor, and as long as the phalanx kept its cohesion and no one allowed a gap to open, it was extremely effective.

. . .

The Persian army reflected the ethnic diversity of the Persian Empire, including a wide range of troop types, weapons, and armor. The principal weapon of the Persians was the bow, used by both foot and mounted archers, and Persian military tactics often featured harassing squadrons of horse archers who would charge in, release flights of arrows, retreat, and then circle back for another charge. Some of the best units in the Persian army were the cavalry, considered the most prestigious arm of the military and, thus, appropriate for the aristocracy. These Persian horsemen wielded light spears, axes, and swords, but their armor was relatively light.

The bulk of the army comprised temporary conscripts, but it also included a number of more professional squadrons. The Persians also employed mercenaries, including large contingents of Greek hoplites who allied with the Persians. Among the professional soldiers were the Immortals, a well-trained, cohesive group of 10,000 elite infantry. They were the best of the best fighters, but their shields, often made of wicker or animal hides, offered far less protection compared to the heavy wood and bronze carried by the typical hoplite, and their body armor was similarly lightweight.

. . .

Conflict between Persia and Greece arose with the revolt of some eastern Greek cities that had been absorbed by the Persian Empire. Although the insurrection was crushed, the rebels had received some aid from the Greek mainland. The Persian king viewed this aid as unwarranted interference and launched a punitive expedition in 490 BC.

At the subsequent Battle of Marathon, the Persians suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of the Athenians. Although Marathon was important for stopping this first Persian invasion and for demonstrating the superiority of the hoplite style of warfare in hand-to-hand combat, from the Persian perspective, it was a minor setback for a small expeditionary force.

The Persians recognized that they would have to send another army to crush the Greeks, but internal politics delayed their return for 10 years. In 480 BC, a massive land and sea invasion force crossed the Hellespont, led personally by Xerxes, king of Persia, intending to overwhelm and subjugate the Greeks.

The Greeks attempted to stop the Persians by occupying the pass of Thermopylae, whose narrow confines nullified their superior numbers as a factor. It was a good strategy, undone when a traitor showed the Persians an alternate route through the mountains. Although a rear guard of 300 Spartans volunteered to stay and hold off the Persians while the others escaped, they were slaughtered, fighting to the last man. The Battle of Thermopylae vividly demonstrated the bravery of the Spartans, but it did nothing to stop the Persian advance, which reached central Greece. The Athenians were forced to flee their city, and the Persians occupied and burned it.

The Greeks recycled their Thermopylae strategy at sea, opposing the Persian navy in a narrow strait between the mainland and the island of Salamis. The resulting naval battle was a success for the Greeks, and a significant portion of the Persian fleet was destroyed. Yet the victory of Salamis did not end the invasion and left the real threat to Greece, the vast Persian land army, untouched and still occupying central Greece.

What Salamis did accomplish was to complicate supplying the huge Persian army. Accordingly, Xerxes decided to return to Persia with many of the conscripts, while leaving behind the best elements of his army to complete the conquest of southern Greece. The general in charge of this task was Mardonius, a brilliant and experienced military commander.

Mardonius chose the 10,000 Immortals, as well as large infantry and cavalry contingents, as his army. The resulting force was, in many ways, more dangerous than the bloated force that had initially invaded Greece, and it was still much larger than any army the Greeks could collectively muster. Mardonius and his army camped for the winter, during which he made several attempts to break up the Greek alliance by exploiting traditional rivalries and suspicions, primarily between the Athenians and the Spartans. This strategy almost worked, but most of the Greeks united and marched north against him.

Mardonius took up a position along the Asopos River, near Thebes, which had thrown in its lot with the Persians out of jealousy of Athens. The best modern guess is that probably 80,000 to 100,000 Greeks squared off against about 100,000 to 150,000 Persians, Thebans, and other pro-Persian Greeks.

Mardonius made the first move, sending some elements of his strong cavalry forces to harass the Greeks and search for a weak spot. During this clash, the popular leader of the Persian cavalry, a man named Masistos, was unhorsed and killed. After some bitter skirmishing over the body of Masistos, the Persians retreated, leaving the trophy in the hands of the Greeks. 

Following this blow to Persian morale, a standoff ensued between the armies for a week or so. During this break in fighting, Mardonius began sending elements of his Persian cavalry on raids behind the Greek line, harassing their supply trains and eventually capturing one of their key water sources. This was crucial, and the Greeks didn’t have long now before action was needed.

Running short on food and water, the Greek commanders decided to pull back during the night to a well-watered and more defensible area called "the island." But the Greeks bungled the retreat. One contingent even refused to obey the orders to leave; thus, once the Greeks finally began to move, they were strung out. As the sun began to rise, their retreat were spotted by the Persians. Seeing this as an opportunity to destroy them, Mardonius ordered a general advance, and the Persians and their allies swept forward. When the Persians crossed the Aisopos and launched an attack, the Spartans, the Greek center, and the Athenian contingents were dangerously separated into three groups, unable to assist one another.

The Spartans hunkered down in phalanx formation on a piece of ground with a slight rise and rough terrain. This offered them protection from calvary attacks as Persian arrows rained down on them, bouncing off of their shields. Meanwhile, in the plain between the town of Plataea and Pyrgos Hill, the Athenians were locked in a brutal hoplite versus hoplite battle with the Persian allied Theban army.

The fighting continued throughout the morning; the Spartans holding formation, the Athenians in a hoplite battle, and the Greek center disconnected and waiting. Meanwhile, more and more Persians streamed from their positions on the river toward the Spartans. Finally, in an undisciplined or defiant move, the Greek allied Tegeans left their line and marched forward to take on the Persians, inducing the Spartans to attack as well. There was a violent clash as the armies collided, and it quickly turned into a savage close-quarters shoving match in which desperate Persians grabbed and broke the Greeks’ spears.

“First there was a struggle at the barricade of shields; then the barricade down, there was a bitter and protracted fight, hand to hand... for the Persians would grab hold of the Spartan spears and break them; in courage and strength they were as good as their adversaries, but they were deficient in armor, untrained and greatly inferior in skill. Sometimes singly, sometimes in groups of ten-perhaps fewer, perhaps more, they fell upon the Spartan line and were cut down." (Herodotus)

In this melee, the heavier armor of the Greeks gave them an advantage, but still, the contest was in doubt. The Persian mounted troops, under personal command of Mardonios, began to push the Spartans back, and the battle might have been won by the Persians but for the strong arm of a single Spartan soldier. With the toss of a stone, Mardonios was unhorsed and then stabbed to death. Without their leader the Persian formation began to lose its cohesiveness and the Spartans heaved forward. The troops who made up the Greek center now advanced on the run at the sight of the Persians reeling under the Spartan surge. The battle turned into a rout, with the triumphant Greeks chasing and slaughtering the defeated Persians.

. . .

On the same day as the Battle of Plataea, a naval battle against the remnant of the Persian fleet also gave victory to the Greeks, and this moment marked the end of the Persian threat. The war would continue for decades, but it was the Greeks who were now on the offensive.

The victory at Plataea ushered in a period known as the Pentekonteia, a 50-year period regarded as the golden age of Greece that ended when they once more fell prey to their old rivalries, resulting in the disastrous 30-year Peloponnesian War.

Debatably, no other battle in history, had the outcome been reversed, would have changed the modern world more radically. Western Civilization is rooted in Greek traditions - particularly the Athenian contributions to culture. It was in the decades that followed this battle that Athens experienced it’s explosion in literature, philosophy, and democracy; featuring the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates, Sophocles. It’s also not a stretch to imagine Persia moving onto Rome had they won, who’s republic was in its infancy. If Persia had gone into Italy, would the Roman Empire have existed? And without a Roman Empire, would Christianity have ever spread throughout the world?

. . .

To commemorate Plataea, the Greeks melted down some of the Persian weapons and used the bronze to erect a column at Delphi. It was stolen 800 years later by Constantine and moved to Constantinople, where it decorated the horse-racing arena. It can still be seen in Istanbul, and it still legibly bears the names of the 31 Greek cities that united to fight at the Battle of Plataea.

Book Sources:

    - “Herodotus’ Histories” translated by Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola

    - “Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West” by Tom Holland

Podcast Source:

    - “Hardcore History 56-58 - Kings of Kings” by Dan Carlin https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-56-kings-kings/

Picture: “Spartans in Battle” Spartans at the Battle of Plataea in Sparta, Greece. duncan1890/iStockphoto.com https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Plataea

Battle Map Link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plataea#/media/File%3ABattle_of_Plataea_part_2.PNG